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2013 Obits – October

October 27 – Lou Reed, 71 – died from liver disease, after having a transplant earlier this year. Lou Reed brought a mercurial and sometimes aggressive disposition to rock music. He was a singer, songwriter and guitarist whose work with the Velvet Underground in the 1960s had a major influence on generations of rock musicians.

Marcia Wallace

October 25 – Marcia Wallace, 70 – died from complications related to breast cancer as reported from several media outlets. Wallace was the bubbly receptionist for six seasons on The Bob Newhart Show made guest appearances on ALF, Murphy Brown and various game shows and built a second career as a voice-over actress, giving life to Edna Krabappel, Bart Simpson’s cynical fourth grade teacher on “The Simpsons.”

October 25 – Nigel Davenport, 85 – English actor known for Chariots of Fire, A Man for All Seasons, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan and many others had an imposing build, deep voice, large mustache and gleaming eyes. If you look him up at imdb.com, his body of work is enormous. He was a founding member of the English Stage Company (ESC) at the Royal Court. He was twice married and divorced. He is survived by his children, writer Hugo Davenport and actors Laura Davenport and Jack Davenport and five grandchildren.

Nigel Davenport, left, as the Duke of Norfolk with Paul Scofield as Thomas More in the 1966 film A Man for All Seasons. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

October 18: Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix, 63 – convicted drug trafficker was shot to seath in the Baja beach resort of Los Cabos by a gunman wearing a clown costume including a wig and a rubber nose. Ha, ha you say. It just so happened to be during an International Clown Convention. The dead man was the eldest brother of Mexico’s once-feared Arellano Felix clan. (This is all the keystrokes and space I plan on wasting on this particular obit.)

October 17: Tom Foley, 84 – House Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a one time U.S. ambassador to Japan and a man who took his job seriously, but never himself. He had been in declining health, his wife Heather confirmed.

October 16: Ed Lauter, 74 – veteran character actor, whose long face and stern expression made him instantly recognizable in movies and TV shows died of mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer most commonly caused by exposure to asbestos.

Gummy Bear

October 15: Hans Riegel, 90 – German entrepreneur and owner of the Haribo empire that produces 100 million gummi bears every day.

October 10: Scott Carpenter, 88 – one of the last surviving original Mercury 7 astronauts and the second American to orbit the Earth.

October 1: Tom Clancy, 66 – died in a Baltimore hospital. A former insurance broker, he wrote his first book, The Hunt for Red October (1984) in his spare time. It sold more than five million copies. He went on to write a string of best-selling spy and military thrillers. His 17th novel, Command Authority, is due out in December.